The further and continuing adventures of the girl who sat in the back of your homeroom, reading and daydreaming.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Things I Have Learned On F*cebook

It's the most social of social-media sites! It plans to take over the world! The Zuck rules with an iron...keyboard?

One of the things it is, is a collection of echo chambers. Sometimes the booming reverberations overwhelm the least vestige of good sense, and then I happen by and learn interesting things:

- My blog -- this blog -- is "sorry graffiti with some punctuation." Personally, I never thought it was that colorful or artistic, but hey, at least the guy granted "punctuation," which would please my elementary-school teachers. I CAN HAZ SEMICOLON?

- In spirited discussion with a woman, a man supporting either party (but especially the Left) is always justified in telling her, "mind yourself, girl," even if he has no idea of her age or knowledge of the subject.

- Likewise, those men can use childishly scatological language -- the most recent example was "ASS-ume" -- and when called on it, edit or delete it rather than apologizing.

- From the other side of the aisle, I found out that Sec. Clinton and Rep. Peolosi are responsible for anarchist protesters spray-painting a circled-A on the side of a limo, smashing the windows and setting it on fire during the Inauguration. (Odd, they were sitting right there in the VIP stands at the time with rather pained-looking smiles, and while no doubt they're up to all manner of no-good shenanigans the same as any other politician, both of them have a deep, abiding, personal interest in discouraging attacks on limousines, especially in Washington, D.C.)

- The Electoral College was a horrible, racist anachronism that must be fixed in 2016 and 2000, but not in 2008 and 2012, when it worked fine. (2004 apparently doesn't rate comment; readers, can you guess who won the popular vote as well as the EC, and what his party affiliation is?)

- In 2000, the Electoral College -- not the Supreme Court! -- put George W. Bush in office over the clear will of the people, where he proceeded to commit WAR CRIMES.* (And yet there he sat yesterday, smiling and talking to the other former Presidents, saying "Howdy" to the Carters and Clintons just like they were all equals.)

- Yet in 2008, Mr. Obama taking over and continuing to prosecute what by then were two not-especially-declared wars, stepping up drone strikes that kill non-combatants, etc. "had to be done." So, if you took a job in which your predecessor was, with his other duties, committing arson, would you take that on, too? (Look, I doubted the justification for the war in Iraq, but "war crimes" is over the top; however, if it's a crime when one man does it, it's still a crime when another continues to do it, and their political party doesn't matter a whit.)

- If I defend the Constitution and Electoral College, explaining the compromise between choosing on the sole basis of the election results in each state and a general election that is behind the apportioning of Electors by the number of Congresscreatures each state has, and the existence of the EC itself as a hedge against a bad choice, I am a "Trump troll."

- Every modern democracy other than the United States selects their Chief Executive by direct election. (Except for the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Switzerland [doubly decoupled from direct election!], Italy, Belgium and Spain. France and Austria directly elect their Chief Executive, but two out of ten is not "every.")

- If I point out that I supported and voted for Gary Johnson, I am "weaseling," "evading" or "spinning;" I am clearly a Trump supporter, or at best a kind of "...lazy Republican... who proclaim[s] to want less federal government."

- And if I provide a link to my blog to show who I supported throughout this Presidential election, why, they'll not "give up the New York Times to read my 'Adventures,'"† and it is, ahem, see the first point above, "graffiti with punctuation."

I admit it, I am just real damn proud of my punctuation._______________________________* Nearly always in all caps, for reasons unknown. Perhaps that's how they picture him authorizing the Iraq War? I'm thinking it's the font of unreasoning, derp-based outrage, but I'm harsh like that.

† I had no idea this was zero-sum, or that my little blog rated near high enough to even be considered as a trade-off with the NYT. My goodness, if their reading schedule is so packed, you'd think the fellows would give up reading matchbooks or the backs of cereal boxes long enough to check for evidence that I'm some sort of covert Trump voter, out to subvert their natural coolth; but no.

11 comments:

Congratulations, ma'am. All of my comments are graffiti without punctuation.

(See below.)

And I AM grateful to you for the opportunity to take my little can of paint and spray my nonsense onto your screen.

I never did get into any of the "social media"; all of the sites (Book of Face, Twitlings, etc.) seemed like a massive waste of time and energy for very little rational return. As a (Senior, you can tell by the gray in the beard) Design Engineer for a MegaCorp I've gotten frequent invitations to join LinkedIn from both colleagues and acquaintances. I did so once, and was immediately swamped with around one e-mail per minute. I deleted the account right away, since I don't have the time to waste on that kind of junk. Since I'm approaching retirement just as fast as I can, I don't really care about "networking" or social crap looking for jobs.

Right now I'm in my cube at my desk typing on my networked computer while the dedicated CFD box is happily crunching away at saving the case and data of a model that I set up yesterday and converged overnight after a couple thousand iterations. Commenting on the occasional blog and e-mailing friends is as "social" as I get on the net.

I too have quit FB. I have had too much hatred directed at myself from friends and relatives, over this election and it's aftermath. I tried to have intelligent discussions with people, but for the most part, I found that, at least with me, they only were interested in their own version of truth, and not reality. After a few veiled and not so veiled threats, I now try to just check up on a few business matters that I only contact on that site, and a couple of groups, and try to stay out of long discussions about current affairs. It is no real loss.

Joseph wrote: "Before the election, it was Republicans who said that Libertarians were the traitors who would enable Clinton."

I figure I'm a traitor either way, even as a non-card-carrying, small-l libertarian. If or when single-party rule comes to America, I'll be shipped off to the camps no matter which party it is, so I have nothing to lose.

I ignore the politics on FB (well, I don't participate, which isn't quite the same thing), hide the more bothersome posts from both sides, and focus on the friends/hobbies stuff (I just got myself into a VASSAL game of Rise & Decline of the Third Reich, where I'll be trying to win one for za Rodina!, via FB).

FB is also a pretty convenient way to keep up with Pearls Before Swine and the revived Bloom County. So it's still a time sink, but once in a while I get something out of it.

"I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions."